146 



Ghazzali's Alchemy of Happiness. 



The third sign of a man's love to God is that the remem- 

 brance of God is always fresh in his heart. He never 

 ceases to meditate upon God. Every man thinks upon 

 and calls to mind an object in proportion to his love to it. 

 If a person's love and affection is perfect he never forgets 

 that object. If a person say, I love both God and a 

 certain worldly object, attention should be paid to see which 

 of them he loves the most. And then that object can be 

 said to rule in his heart which he loves the most. Gradu- 

 ally from day to day, the object which preponderates will 

 efface little by little all affection for the other. 



The fourth sign of love to God is, to love and respect 

 the powerful Koran, regarding it as the word of God. A 

 man ought to praise and love the prophets and saints, as 

 the friends of God. He should love all men, saying that 

 they were all created by the will and power of God. 

 Whatever person attains to this point, his feelings of envy 

 and hatred and even his coldness of looks will be quelled 

 and disappear, and he will treat all individuals as his 

 friends. 



The fifth sign of love to God is that a man will choose 

 the closet and retirement and have an eagerness for secret 

 prayer. He will long and wait for the night, that the avo- 

 cations and hindrances of the world maybe banished, that 

 he may be embarrassed by no distractions in his supplica- 

 tions to his incomparable and unique Friend, and that he 

 may be alone in familiar intercourse with God. 



It is reported that in the days of the children of Israel, 

 there was a slave who prayed every night from evening 

 until morning, but he went out and performed his morn- 

 ing prayer under a tree. God spoke by inspiration to the 

 one who was the prophet at that time and said, " Go and 

 speak to that slave my servant thus: — You abandon 

 prayer to me in secret and come out here to pray under 

 this tree, for the sake of the pleasure you derive from the 



